The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Pieris plant, botanically known as Pieris japonica, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Cabernet’.
The new Pieris plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Hopewell, Oreg. The objective of the breeding program is to develop new compact and freely-branching Pieris plants with stable and attractive flower color and good garden performance.
The new Pieris plant originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in March, 1997, in Hopewell, Oreg., of Pieris japonica var. japonica ‘Reversal’, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with the Pieris japonica ‘Valley Valentine’, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Pieris plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled outdoor nursery environment in Hopewell, Oreg. in early March, 2002.
Asexual reproduction of the new Pieris plant by cuttings propagated in a controlled environment in Hopewell, Oreg. since 2002 has shown that the unique features of this new Pieris plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.